Isotta Nogarola

[1] She inspired generations of artists and writers, among them Lauro Quirini and Ludovico Foscarini [it], and contributed to a centuries-long debate in Europe on gender and the nature of women.

[2][5] Nogarola's early letters demonstrate her familiarity with Latin and Greek authors, including Cicero, Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius, as well as Petronius and Aulus Gellius.

Niccolo Venier thought the whole female sex should rejoice and consecrate statues to Isotta as the ancient Egyptians had to Isis.

[5] For her own part, Nogarola was concerned that her fame did not come from the sheer volume of intelligence she seemed to possess, but from the novelty of her gender, and despite her erudition, she had little choice but to defer to the contemporary social norms by deprecating herself as an ignorant woman.

[7] In 1438, after receiving praise from Guarino da Verona, Nogarola wrote him a letter, calling him a "wellspring of virtue and probity."

[11] Confronted with this hostile reception, Nogarola appears to have decided that devoting herself to literary studies meant the sacrifice of friendship, fame, comfort, and sexuality.

[5] In 1451, she published her most famous and perhaps most influential work, De pari aut impari Evae atque Adae peccato (trans.

[12][13] Using a reductio ad absurdum argument, Nogarola demonstrated that women could not be held to be weaker in nature and more culpable in original sin.